Pound for Pound
by luciana.pearlray
Summary: After gaining ten pounds, hangups about Prompto's prior pudginess manifest themselves in the form of erratic and unhealthy behavior. His friends try their best, but it's the Crown Prince who'll have to help him confront his daemons.


"Crap…"

Prompto pinched his belly. To his dismay, there was a bit of softness. Releasing a sigh, he looked himself over in the filthy rest stop mirror. He saw a face with cheeks far fuller than he would have liked. "Igni's cooking is way too good," he muttered to himself. _Or maybe,_ he thought, _you just have no self control._

He thought back to his childhood, to his days as "a walking sack of Leiden potatoes," as he thinks of them. Noct seemed so unapproachable then. It was only after he sloughed off nearly a hundred pounds of fat that Prompto could work up the courage to talk to him.

" _Hey there, Prince Noctis!" called Prompto from behind._

" _Huh?" The young prince was used to people keeping their distance out of 'respect.'_

" _I'm Prompto. Nice to meet you!"_

 _Noctis looked the golden-haired, rail thin boy up and down. "Don't I know you?" he asked, giving him a pat on the back. He hoped the gesture would be reassuring._

 _Prompto let out a nervous laugh. "I, uh…" He couldn't tell the Crown Prince of Insomnia who he was before. How could he look at him the same? "Sorry, Highness, you must be mistaken!"_

"Are you nearly finished?" asked Ignis, knocking on the bathroom door.

"Y-yeah, I'll be right out."

As the Prince's retainer, how could Prompto protect the royal lineage if he had extra weight slowing him down? What's more, how could Noctis hold him if his arms can't reach around him?

His arms could certainly reach around _her._

Even a little bit of gain could lead to a full backslide. _I'm not going to let that happen,_ he thought. _I need to lose this weight._

Stepping out to greet the royal retinue, Prompto felt the same determination that filled his heart when he first laid eyes on the Prince. "I'm ready. Let's go."

"Hold on a minute!" said Gladio, making his way to the bathroom. "I gotta drop rocks!"

"Make it quick," said Prompto, who spent the past ten minutes 'taking a leak.'

Gladio stared daggers at him from behind the cracked door. "You're kidding, right?"

"Yo, Noct," said Prompto, ignoring the icy yet befuddled glare Gladio shot as he slowly shut the bathroom door. "Do you think we could go on a hunt today?"

"A few extra Gil sounds good to me," said Noctis, fishing in his pocket for his whistle. "We still have some time on our chocobo rental."

Prompto grabbed Noct's arm. "Wait… Why don't we go on foot?"

Taken aback, Noctis blinked a few times. "You… _don't_ want to ride the chocobo?"

"That's a first," quipped Ignis.

"Well, you know…" Prompto scratched the back of his neck. "It's nice to stretch your legs every once in a while, right?"

"Highness, we do find some valuable treasure on foot that we blaze past on chocobo," said Ignis.

Noctis shrugged. "I guess we're hoofing it, then."

"Great!" said Prompto, bouncing up and down on his toes. "I'll get a head start!" He bolted out the door at a full sprint, leaving a puzzled prince and a confounded cook in his wake.

Running at breakneck speed, Prompto dropped and slid towards the Garulessa like it was home plate. He delivered a swift shot to its underside: a killing blow.

"Attaboy, Prompto!" Gladio shouted. "You're really giving it your all today!"

Panting, Prompto sprang upright. His clothes, matted with sweat, clung to his skin. "Another!"

"Another hunt?" asked Noctis. "What's gotten into you today?"

Gladio flashed a toothy grin. "Whatever it is, I like it!"

Prompto rubbed his chin in thought. Using guns doesn't burn a lot of calories, does it? In a eureka moment, he snapped his fingers. "Hey Ignis! Let's try something different!"

"What, for dinner?" Ignis asked. "Snapping your fingers in such a manner can only mean a new recipe."

"Nah! I wanna get up close and personal with the monsters!" said Prompto, pretending to box. "Why don't we switch weapons? I give you my gun, and you give me your daggers!"

Ignis lowered his glasses and looked over the top of the frames. "But Prompto, you never use daggers. Do you know how to wield them?"

"Sure I do!" the blonde said, giving a thumbs up. "You slice the baddies up until they fall down!"

"Well, there's a bit more to it than that," Ignis said. He carefully handed the weapons to Prompto. "Skillful use of short blades requires a certain finesse. Perhaps you should have Gladio-"

Prompto pointed to a distant monster. "Ah! Another Garulessa! Don't worry, I got this one!"

"Wait- Prompto!"

Screaming like a madman and wildly flailing his arms, Prompto raced towards the pachyderm. Nonplussed, the massive mastodon swung her tusks and flung Prompto into the nearest tree, then continued her business as though nothing happened. The three Citadel-dwellers dashed to the dazed dagger-dilettante. "Prompto! You alright?" Noctis asked, trying to help him to his feet.

"I'm fine!" he said, pushing the Prince away. "I'll take that thing down if it's the last thing I do!"

"Woah, woah," said Gladio, holding back a kicking Prompto. "It looks like you got a little too much pep in your step, there. I think it's time you took a break."

"I'll tell you when I need a break! Let me at 'em!"

Using his palm, Ignis measured the distance between the sun and the horizon. "Our daylight hours are coming to an end. I suggest we set up camp."

Noctis put his arm around Prompto. "Come on, let's go. There's always time for another hunt."

Soothed by Noct's voice, Prompto's pent-up energy dissipated. "I guess…" he relented.

Using a towel to protect his hand, Ignis gave the cast-iron pan a quick jiggle to ensure even cooking of the Daggerquill. Seeing that it was perfectly browned and crispy, he dumped the poultry on a plate and set it aside. He deglazed the pan with red wine from the Lucian reserve, and added roasted Leiden peppers and a few chopped hot chilies. Savoring the sweet and spicy aroma for a moment, he then turned his attention to the Saxham rice. He uncovered the pot and gave it a stir: light and fluffy, as it's meant to be. He stirred in some cilantro, along with the zest and juice of one lime. Sampling a bite, Ignis determined that it needed some more lime zest. Another bite. Perfect: the cooling sensation of the citrus and cilantro created contrast with the kick that the chilies provided. Next, he poured the contents of the pan, peppers and all, into his battery-operated food processor and blended it into a light sauce. All that remained was plating and serving: a hill of rice (a mountain for Gladio), surrounded by a moat of blood-red pepper sauce, which served as a crimson bath for the Daggerquill.

"Dinner is served," Ignis called out as he handed plates out to Noctis and Gladio. "Peppery Daggerquill Rice."

"About time!" said Gladio. "I'm starving over here!"

"Thanks, Ignis," said Noctis, undercutting Gladio's shortness.

"It's nothing," said Ignis, grabbing two more servings. He presented Prompto his plate, but was surprised to see that he didn't take it. "Prompto, your food."

"I'm not hungry," he said.

Noctis knew something was up. "But this is one of your favorite dishes. You know you can't resist!"

"I can, and I will," said an annoyed Prompto. "As I said, I'm not hungry right now." Suddenly, he was betrayed by a loud gurgle from his stomach.

"Prompto, look at my plate," Gladio said. There was enough food on the dish for three people. "You think I eat like this because I'm a glutton? Your body needs food to build muscle. If you keep skipping meals, you're just gonna get weaker and weaker. Maybe that's why you're always falling in battle."

Prompto shot upright with an angrier expression than the others had ever seen on him before. "You know, I don't need to keep hearing about my eating habits. I'm going to bed. Good night." He stormed off to the tent. He tried to slam the flap, but all it did was swish. Ignis, Gladio, and Noctis all looked at each other, trying to figure out what just happened.

"Highness, I think you should check on him," said Ignis.

"Yeah, thanks, _Professor_ ," retorted Noctis, already halfway out of his seat to do just that.

Prompto sat facing the back of the lantern-lit tent, his head in his hands. He had expected praise for his exemplary self control. Rejecting one of his favorite foods was no easy task, after all. No matter what he did, it never seemed to be good enough for the royals. It was only a matter of time before-

"Hey," said Noctis, entering the tent and zipping up the flap.

"Hey…" said Prompto, though it came out as more of a guttural grunt than a word.

Noctis sat down at Prompto's side. The two sat in silence for a while before Noct broke it. "So you gonna tell me what's been bothering you, or…?"

"Be honest: you like Luna better than me, don't you?"

"Huh?" It seemed so out of the blue. Why would he bring Luna into this?

"She's so…" Prompto's eyes welled up with tears. "...Petite."

"Where did this come from?" asked Noctis. "I don't know what her being petite has to do with anything."

"When you marry her… There's gonna be no room for me."

Noctis put his arm around Prompto. "That's not true. I honestly wish I could marry you both. Heh, I bet you'd like that, wouldn't you?"

"Well, I mean… I wouldn't complain…" said Prompto through a begrudging smile.

"I see, you're more of a Cindy fan!" joked Noctis. "How about all four of us get hitched? 'I now pronounce you husbands and wives!' How does that sound?"

Prompto chuckled. "If only!" Thinking about it more, his demeanor turned more serious. "...But what's gonna happen there is, you're gonna run off with both of the girls and I'll be back at square one."

Noctis pulled Prompto close and ruffled his hair. "Now tell me, Mr. Chocobo-head, what on Eos gave you this idea that I'm gonna leave you?"

It was finally time for Prompto to come clean. "I gained ten pounds."

"That's it? _That's_ what's been causing you all this stress?" Noctis rubbed his boyfriend's arm. "Don't tell me you've been running around all this time in hopes of losing ten pounds in one day."

"I figured it was worth a shot," Prompto scratched the back of his neck. "I didn't want to go back to being f- …being who I was before. I was pretty different as a kid. I wasn't the kind of person a Prince of Lucis would want to be seen with."

Noctis smiled. "What, the fluffy, cuddly teddy bear you were as a kid? What makes you think I wouldn't have wanted to be seen with you?"

"What?" Prompto was so used to being bullied for his size that hearing it framed as 'cute' was entirely alien to him. "Y-you knew I was…?"

"You think I didn't see you jogging all around? If you remember, I recognized you right away when you introduced yourself in high school," The prince let out a nostalgic laugh. "You tried to play it off like, 'Oh no, you're mistaking me for someone else!'"

"Saw right through me, huh?"

"Of course! That kind of thing happens all the time. 'Cause no one wants to admit 'Yes, Prince Noctis, I was staring at you from a distance,' so it's always fun when I call them out on it. I like watching them squirm." Noctis tickled Prompto's belly. "That much hasn't changed!"

"Haha, stop, stop!" Prompto tried to knock Noct's hand away, but he grabbed Prompto's hand and put it around his waist. Feeling the prince's warmth, he couldn't help but wrap the other arm around him, clutching the back of his shirt. "Noct…" he whispered between hushed breaths. The prince leaned in close. Prompto's eyelids became heavy. He allowed them to close and drifted away to a euphoric plane of existence, where only he and Noctis resided.

Ignis smiled softly when he saw the two kissing silhouettes in the tent. He turned to Gladio, seated by the fire. "When do you think they'll tell us?"

Gladio kicked back and rested his feet on the cooler. "When they're damn well ready."

"Ah!" Prompto let out a gasping moan as Noct gently bit his neck. "I think we should stop before we get too worked up."

Noct reluctantly released his golden-haired shutterbug. "Yeah, the others are waiting for us."

"I want to be honest though," said Prompto, caressing the royal arm that carried the Royal Arms. "I'm still gonna try to lose that weight. But from now on, I'm not gonna lose weight for anyone other than myself."

"Prompto," said Noctis. "I don't care if you eat a burger or run a marathon. 'Cause pound for pound, you're the best companion a prince can ask for." He unzipped the tent's flap and beckoned Prompto to follow him. "Come on, let's eat!"

The two rejoined their party and shared a hearty meal under the shimmering stars.

FIN.


End file.
